Diana Penty at the Rockystar show at Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2014. Picture: Anindya Shankar Ray

She had been missing in action after Homi Adajania’s Cocktail shot her to fame, so it was a sweet surprise to meet Diana Penty in her hotel room at Lakme Fashion Week last month. Dressed in skinny jeans and a shirt with no make-up, she was seated cross-legged on a couch, waiting to get ready to walk for Tresemme and Rockystar.

What has she been up to all this while? “I had been searching for myself somewhere along the way. So I disappeared and travelled.... I was, I guess, a little overwhelmed with the response (to Cocktail). This was on another magnitude,” she says. Her travels took her to Tel Aviv and Italy, among other places. On her wish list is the “untouched Africa”.

Back after this self-exploration, Diana is now ready to take on Bollywood. “You need to be convinced about what you are doing.... That’s probably the main reason why it’s taken this long,” she adds.

On her mind are scripts that surprise her. “I would love to work in a film that I would love to watch,” says the leggy beauty, remembering how she went “wow” when she saw The Lunchbox, Shahid and Highway.

Her fashion favourites

My sense of style is casual chic. During the day, I can walk around in chappals, shirt and skinny jeans. I would carry my heels in my bag, which I am doing right now, a round-toed pump. May be just a little bit of mascara and kajal. Besides my eyes, I don’t do much make-up.

I am a shoe and bag girl. I have at least 100 pairs of chappals.

I usually like to wear my hair down. It’s the easiest thing to do. During the day, I would have half of it up a little bit and during night, the whole thing down.